Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1887-02-10
Thursday February 10 1857.


on Postofiices and Post Roads has
reported a bill for the establish
nent of telegraphic service as
branch Of the Pestoffice. The pos
tai tele graph was established long
ago in Treat Britain and some other
European countries, but obstacles
have been thrown in the way of Its
adoption here. Ex-senator Hill of
Colorado, who was Chairman of the
Senate Committee on1 Postofhces,
had set his heart on getting bill
! through for the purpose. His fall
ure to secure a reelection delayed
the project, but now it has been re-
ylyed and his successor in the Char
manship, Conger of Michigan, and
Wilson of Iowa, are going to try
and push it through the Senate at
this session.
The committee has followed very
closely in the track of Senator Hill.
The plan proposed does not con-
template-at any rate for the pres
ent-the building of new lines or
the acquisition of lines already
built. 1t does authorize the Post
master General to invite existing
companies to say at what price
they will sell out. but it does not
authorize him to buy them. He
must merely report their offers to
Congress. Meantime he is direct
ed to make contracts with any COM
pany or companies for the trans
mission of postal messages on terms
which Congress fixes. Those terms
are considerably lower than the
terms now in force on the Western
Union lines. For instance, the
rate fxed in the bill is 20 cents for
a message to 90 1000 miles, and 3
cents fer each additional $50 miles,
with the proviso that the charge
shall never exceed so cents, no mat
ter what the distance. Thus the
charge for a message from San
Francisco to New York by the Pos
tai Telegraph would be 80 cents for
twenty words, while the Western
Union charges 81 for ten words,
and Mr. Mackay's line, which is to
be open for business within a week
or ten days, it is said, will charge
the same.
1t is hardly to be supposed that
the Senate Committee has fixed
those rates without consultation
with the managers of the present
telegraph companies. 1t would not
be worth while to pass bill direct
ing the Postmaster General to
make an offer unless there were
more reasonable probability of its
being accepted. We may therefore
surmise that the Western Union
and the present Postal Telegraph
Company have been arprised of the
rates named in the bill and have
signifed their willingness to accept
them. If this is the case the pub
lie will have the advantage, when
the bill becomes law, of sending
twenty words to New York for 81
cents and twenty words to any
point on this coast for 20 cents.
This will be a marked reduction
from present rates.
The bill is probably the best So
luton Of a much-vexed question.
The demand for postal telegraph
is too peremptory to be longer with
stood. Three ways Of establishing
it have been proposed; one is for
the Government to build its own
lines; a second is to buy cut the ex-
istlng lines, and third is to make
q contract with the companies to
do the work for the Government.
Objections to the construction of a
new system of lines, duplicating
lines now in existence, are too OBJ
yious to need enumeration. Wheth-
er eventually it will not BE to the
interest of the Government to buy
out the Western Union is ques-
ton which may admit Of argument;
out we shall be better fitted to de-
eide it if we try for few years to
rub along with a contract by which
the Government shall be response
BILE for the transmission of the
messages, and the present compa-
MES shall do the actual work OF
sending the spark along the wires.